11 months later, I Am Poor makes it into the iPhone App Store

Hardy Macia of Catamount Software has waited 11 months to see his app I Am Poor make it into the iPhone Store, which finally happened earlier this week. I wanted to write about his saga because I found it illuminating about how hard it can be to get an app approved by Apple for the App Store.

Let’s start at the beginning. Back in August, Apple pulled a $999 app called I Am Rich, which had no function beyond being a way to show off your financial means and perhaps your stupidity. Macia thought it would be fun to contrast the pulled app with one called I Am Poor, a 99 cent app that featured a picture of Mac n Cheese and ramen noodles.

He quickly submitted the app and within two weeks, got a note telling him he was rejected because there was no definable content. But that was the whole point of the app. Apple at this point wasn’t in the business of generally approving a bunch of novelty apps. iFart and others didn’t come until December.

Macia moved on to other things but decided in early February to resubmit the app, this time including an ebook of P.T. Barnum’s “Art of Money Getting.” The app still opened with an image of Mac n Cheese and ramen.

He was told in early March that the app would take longer to review. Then he heard nothing. In June, he finally got a call from Apple saying he was in danger of being rejected again because in his description, he had mentioned that he had been rejected before.

“That was their issue — because I had cited the fact that it had been rejected before,” Macia said. “I don’t know why they should be sensitive about it, they reject apps and send people to black holes forever and don’t tell people why.”

Macia edited the description and finally got approved a month later on Sunday. He’s sold a few of the apps, but he thinks he would have sold many more if he could have come out in August or even earlier this year. Another competing “I Am Poor.” (with a period) came out earlier this spring.

Overall, Macia wishes the app store was more transparent and developers received more timely news about the progress of their apps. Waiting five months to finally receive approval for an app whose offenses could have been corrected in five minutes strikes Macia as extreme. The app, in fact, could have come out 11 months earlier if Apple was in the mood.

Macia is still writing apps for the iPhone. He just wishes it were a little easier.

“They need to change the process so they’re not holding up apps for trivial things. It’s as simple as a typo that they’re rejecting things for,” said Macia. “Even now when I resubmit an app for an update, I have the same constricting in my heart that my app might not get approved and I might not know why.”